About a week ago, it was New Year's, and Jiaxing Yun and I got so drunk that I don't remember what happened then. A couple of days later, some strange people grabbed me, after which I woke up on the outskirts of the city. Jiaxing Yun disappeared somewhere for a couple of days after that and returned all beaten up and with rather serious wounds. As he said, I was captured by the guardians to demand something from him; he also said it was related to the death of his parents. But I don't know anything detailed about it.
In general, Jiaxing Yun is a rather strange guy, and always has been, I think, since our first normal acquaintance. During Mo Fan's and Yu An's duel, I was depressed that I, a lightning mage, one of the best students in the school, was participating in this battle for the holy spring. Then I was incredibly proud of myself; from the very beginning of my studies at Tian Lan School, I was treated specially. But in the end, the guy who was considered a prodigy on the very first exam surpassed me. And then again, and again, and now I'm no longer the best student in the school, but he is. It was painful; I fell into despair from such a role reversal, but at the time, I thought Yu An would easily defeat him.
But I was wrong; Mo Fan won. He also turned out to be a lightning mage; he's a two-element mage! This struck my pride even harder, so losing the bet with Jiaxing Yun didn't seem like anything special to me. I was curious how Mo Fan became so strong because he didn't win just because of the two elements that no one knew about, but because both his elements were incredibly strong. I asked Jiaxing Yun about it; it was after his words that I began to consider becoming a hunter.
However, after that, a tragedy occurred in Bo City, all my relatives were killed by monsters, and the culprit was the black church. I swore to avenge her at all costs! But for that, immense power was needed, so it was finally decided to become a hunter. It was scary to go alone, so I tried to convince Jiaxing Yun to go with me, he also seemed to want to do this, so I thought it was quite logical. To my surprise, he agreed quite easily.
At first, we didn't know each other well, but I tried to be friendly to him, and there was no trace of my pride left. The first mission was to kill the red-eyed tritons, a perfectly logical mission for mages at the peak of the initial level, with no combat experience. But I was worried that our two-person team would not be able to do anything. Well, what could we do? Jiaxing Yun was a wind mage, and as I thought, he couldn't do anything but distract the tritons, and I wasn't sure if I could kill them easily.
However, then the first strangeness of Jiaxing Yun manifested itself, he was not an ordinary wind mage, he bought a dagger on the market for ten thousand yuan and started killing tritons with it! At the same time, he had enough speed and agility for this, and there was also a slight experience in killing beasts. This was very strange, although he inspired me with confidence, was friendly and seemed open, did not wish me harm, but... But at the same time, he was shrouded in a veil of mystery, sometimes it seemed that he was always hiding something, and hiding a lot.
After a couple of days, instead of his usual dagger, which had become quite dull over time, Jiaxing Yun had a couple of others. It looked like these daggers were made from someone's teeth. Of course, he could have bought them at the market, but we didn't have much money then, we were just starting out. Then suspicion arose in me that Jiaxing Yun was much stronger than he seemed. I don't know why, but he seemed to me like a person who could defeat Mo Fan without any effort.
Time passed, my skills also improved, I became stronger. I developed a good friendship with Jiaxing Yun, he was kind and responsive, and generally gave the impression of a good guy. But the more time I spent with him, the more I realized that he was holding back during battles with monsters. And no, he wasn't hiding half his strength, or even two-thirds, but almost all of it. I became more and more convinced that he was much stronger than Mo Fan. And if I could consider Mo Fan my rival, with whom I could sooner or later compare myself, then I could only consider Jiaxing Yun as someone above me, someone much stronger. I decided to strive for his level and reach it sooner or later.
In early autumn, we took another mission and returned to Bo City to help the military restore it. On the very first expedition to the lair of the one-eyed wolves, I became convinced of Jiaxing Yun's immense strength. By that time, he had officially reached the intermediate level and awakened the lightning element. Then, unexpectedly, it turned out that not one three-eyed wolf lived in the lair, but three. The lieutenants who were leading the operation at the time sent all the other mages to retreat, and they themselves stayed to cover their escape.
I was about to follow everyone, but Jiaxing Yun, without a shadow of fear, rushed at the three-eyed wolf and blinded it! After that, I changed my mind about retreating; it seemed to me that if I retreated now, my cultivation would stop forever, and I would never be able to become stronger. At the same time, another strangeness of Jiaxing Yun manifested itself; it seemed that he did not know what fear was, but only enjoyed the fight, like some kind of obsessed person! I didn't tell him about it, nor did I change my opinion about him. After this battle, he forever became an example for me.
Also, the result of the battle was the acceleration of my cultivation; something seemed to awaken within me and led me to unimaginable heights. The next strange incident involving Jiaxing Yun happened almost two weeks later. Then we went to clear out the lair again, only this time we were joined by another group of hunters. Even before we reached our destination, we were attacked by a large group of wolves, from which we barely escaped. Then Jiaxing Yun, as a wind mage, was engaged in reconnaissance of the path. Everyone was going to blame him for this, but he himself was subjected to an unexpected attack.
We hastily returned to base. An investigation began into what happened, and it was established that the bait was to blame for everything. This is a terrible thing that can attract any monsters to a certain place. Sometimes the military uses them to distract monsters, but only in cases of extreme necessity. Also, the second team of hunters did not return from this raid. Everyone decided that they had died because of their own bait. This was strange, but I didn't think Jiaxing Yun was involved.
Soon we left the military unit, I said goodbye to my relatives, confirming my oath. I think if it weren't for Jiaxing Yun, I wouldn't have done it. Also, after that, we decided to take a survival mission on Lake Dongtinghu. While we were in Shanghai, I managed to fight Mo Fan. It turned out that he now has four elements, I found this out when I cornered him during training and he had to use shadow to escape. The battle essentially ended in a draw, as both were severely exhausted and wounded.
Taking the mission, Jiaxing Yun and I visited the city of Yueyang, it was then that I learned about his not very pleasant side. Jiaxing Yun turned out to be a person who could easily kill people. Of course, he explained to me that he killed those who pursued him, and before that, killed his parents. I was deeply touched by this story; after all, I myself had recently lost my parents and my whole family. So I didn't even think about condemning him, but instead felt respect for him. Since he is a person who can protect himself, can make difficult decisions and kill a person when necessary. I certainly couldn't do that; the only creatures similar to humans that I can kill by the hundreds are the adepts of the black church.
After all these adventures, we returned to Lake Taihu, from where we began our adventure. There we slightly reduced the hunting pace, and Jiaxing Yun found himself a teacher. About four months passed, during which nothing unexpected happened. I was able to reach the intermediate level and awakened the wind. Then I thought that I had become closer to my ideal, to Jiaxing Yun, who had exactly the same elements, but he sobered me up, saying that close combat would not suit me and recommended honing my long-range combat skills, which I did.
He also told me about an interesting way to arrange star paths to speed up the magic release process. I couldn't master it right away, but it's quite effective. This also seemed strange to me and further confirmed my suspicions that he was not an ordinary mage, but someone with immense power.
And on New Year's, the situation I told about happened. Although Jiaxing Yun said that his teacher helped him, for some reason I clearly felt that he was alone. Of course, I don't know what power those who captured me possessed, but I don't think they were weak. But I am also sure that Jiaxing Yun had enough strength to kill them all. Sometimes I get goosebumps when I look at him.
After that, we went to Shanghai again. Jiaxing Yun decided to hide from his pursuers and not expose me or anyone else close to him. Perhaps there was something else behind it, but I was not interested in it at all. In Shanghai, he spent about another month, recovering from his wounds, and then, after saying goodbye, he left in an unknown direction.
The whole month we spent in Shanghai, I fought with Mo Fan. This time, I confidently drew all the fights, despite the fact that he summoned a dark wolf. However, this also showed me that mages with unusual talents, like Mo Fan, are much stronger than ordinary mages like me. Of course, I have much more combat experience than Mo Fan, we are roughly at the same level, but we still have a draw.
Jiaxing Yun recommended that I find a spiritual seed, a thing capable of increasing a mage's power, but to obtain it, one either has to become much stronger or earn a lot of money. The first was very difficult, the second was a little easier; one could start hunting again, but I'm not sure if I can handle it alone. The most logical thing that came to my mind was to invite Mo Fan. A couple of days after Jiaxing Yun's departure, after another duel, I turned to him:
"Mo Fan, what do you think about starting to hunt monsters and earn a little?" I asked him. The duel ended in a draw again, so now Jiaxing Xia was actively healing him.
"I don't know, I can't leave Jiaxing Xia alone," he said, shrugging and thinking for a moment.
"So you can take her with you, a healing mage will be useful to us," I said in a relaxed tone, but immediately realized that Mo Fan didn't particularly like this idea, his face immediately turned black. "We won't be hunting serious monsters, just servant level. We can protect her, and besides, you have a wolf, he can handle it. And it will be very useful for her and help her cultivation," I blurted out quickly, before a fireball flew at me.
"It's still very dangerous," Mo Fan replied seriously. I couldn't think of any more words that could convince him, so I looked pleadingly into Jiaxing Xia's eyes.
"Brother Mo Fan, I'm not a little girl, and besides, if you take me with you, I'm sure you'll protect me. But I'll gain experience in first aid right in battle and encountering magical beasts, which will allow me to improve my cultivation," she said calmly, smiling slightly, heeding my pleas.
"Okay, but what about father? How will we leave him?" Mo Fan asked, hesitating.
"He won't be against it, he won't stop you if it's for your own good," I said, smiling slightly. "Right, Jiaxing Xia?"
"That's right, Brother Mo Fan, when you became a hunter yourself, you didn't ask your father's permission," Jiaxing Xia said affectionately.
"Okay. And where will we go?" Mo Fan asked with doubt.
"I have an idea to go to Bo City to the military base. Zhang Xiaohou and He Yu are serving there now," I said, thinking for a moment. I wanted to stay there at the beginning of autumn, but I changed my mind because of Jiaxing Yun, and besides, I heard that to the northwest of the city there are lands of lightning wolves. Of course, they are very dangerous, but perhaps there will be a lightning seed there.
"Are you suggesting we go to the monkey?" Mo Fan laughed. "Yes, I don't mind meeting him again, I don't mind. Is that allowed?"
"Jiaxing Yun and I lived at the base for two weeks helping them," I said, shrugging.
"Then okay, we're leaving tomorrow," Mo Fan said confidently.